The Battle On The Inside
by Chaanoua
Summary: The Jedi have been all but wiped out, with Darth Vader hunting down the remaining order. Ahsoka Tano, now aiding the rebels on the re-established base on Dantooine knows nothing about what happened to her former master. But it seems a probe droid is about to bring the Empire's wrath down on her new friends and allies with Vader not far behind...


((This will be my first Star Wars related work, I am sorry for any inconsistencies with other novels or anything considered canon.))

**Bast Castle, Vjun.**

_Trickle, trickle, drip, trickle…_

The skies of the long dead planet laid stretched across the toxic mountains of the acid jungle world, thick fog surrounding the very tops of each grey earth structure. Acidic rain baring down from the murky green sky onto eroded rocks to form a small stream that would join with a pale river at the end of a steep hill; devoid of any life, of any hope. Vjun was one of the gloomiest planets in the Galaxy, only in the shadow of Raxus Prime and its hellish toxic surface. The anti-sentient nature of the outer-rim world was a place few beings or even droids could survive on for long periods of time, and it was for this reason that the Galactic Empire had restored an ancient castle that was built thousands of years ago for Palpatine's favorite pet –the feared cyborg enforcer; Darth Vader.

Inside the castle one might find it far from homey, the black walls stretched out all over the area with a black floor illuminated with red lights following an "X" pattern of sorts was the main design of each hallway and room. Control panels hung from each wall, displaying the current date, time, and weather as well as a way to estimate how much acid the rain was carrying to avoid any damage to machinery, personal, or Vader himself. The structure looked so old on the outside yet so menacing and technologically advanced on the interior.

The black armored wearing sith himself remained seated deep within the belly of his mechanical fortress, inside a large sphere shaped meditation chamber, the only area he could safely remove his breathing mask and not die or be in severe pain. It is where he could look in the mirror, only to see a burnt, pale, and scarred face rather than his old perfect complexion. Like a burned cancer patient, seated on his throne of broken thoughts that he could never repair. With his mask off, Vader sighed in regret and depression, how long ago was it he lost his wife, his place in the order, and everything he had worked for? All for a fake promise made by a man he thought he could trust, whom took advantage of his need for a father to groom him into nothing but an errand boy? Vader had destroyed the Jedi, murdered children, and killed everyone… everyone he had cared about. "Was it worth it…?" he questioned himself, slowly slouching on his shiny white chair. "Yes… I suppose it was. I lost everything for the power I craved, and now it's all I have. Surrounded by men I cannot bond with, with troops that are no longer as creative as they used to be, and the slave of an old incompetent dark lord… Yes… I got what I wanted…" Through all of his bad memories of Order 66, there was one thing deep inside him that the sith was relieved about. That only three months before the entire event his old padawan had defected from the Jedi for similar reasons he had –they didn't trust her and cast her out like a leper to appease the senate. He was glad that day he didn't have to cut her down, that he was spared from that trauma and that so was she. But now, inside of his hollow shell, Vader knew that wouldn't last. "She'll never accept the Empire…" Vader knew it, Ahsoka was loyal to the Jedi order, and the Republic. The Empire was _neither _so it wasn't likely his old apprentice would stay in hiding. And with the whole legions of troops and probe droids and spies devoted to rooting out fugitive Jedi, it was only a matter of time before she was found; of course Palpatine would jump on the chance to further subjugate his apprentice by killing Ahsoka –Vader knew it.

Of course, it's not to say Vader felt bad about bringing his fist down on the Jedi, they tried to kill Palpatine and the senate, they kept him down while he was Anakin Skywalker, and made multiple bad decisions that affected everybody. The Empire had made the Galaxy perfect, at least in his own view. Deciding it was time to stop reflecting on his past, the dark lord pressed a button on his arm rest that brought his black helmet down, both ends collapsing around his head and with a _hiss _the helmet had re-sealed itself. The chamber then opened, the top separating from the bottom as steam flooded out of the chamber, cleaning itself so that bacteria from Vader's exposed skin wouldn't collect on the walls or cause a bad smell. The sith lord strides across the metallic floor, heading to the control room to receive information about whatever was currently going on…

Meanwhile, parsecs away from Vader's reach was the rebel base on Dantooine. Hidden away in the grassy Plaines and forests where the rebels had made their home in an abandoned village. It was the perfect place to hide out, as the last remaining villages had been wiped out when the Galactic Empire first stormed the planet and killed Jedi Master Falon Grey. It had taken Months for the imperials to finally leave the planet, and the rebels had slowly made their way back on the world's surface. Ahsoka was also with the rebels now, having joined the alliance when she heard about the massacre of the Jedi order, about Darth Vader, and the enslavement of numerous worlds and species. The Togurta Jedi's decision to leave the Jedi order months prior to the deaths of all her Jedi friends saved her life, and a few rebels as well. She even learnt some things from Master grey before his death, and even master Rahm Kota. Ahsoka had picked up on force healing, how to better hone her telekinesis and how to rely on her Lekkus for natural sensing abilities. In short, she had earned the rank of Jedi Knight, and planned to keep it. It's what Anakin would have wanted, or so she thought –believing that he too had been a victim of Order 66. She knew nothing about his transformation into Darth Vader, just as she had no clue where Obi-Wan was hiding or if he was even alive. She hoped so, however. The red-skinned female was currently assisting rebel officers loading weaponry into a stolen LAAT gunship, as well as food and medical supplies. The alliance had to always be ready of imperial attack, living with paranoia of the day their mass slaughter would come at the hand of white plastic soldiers and their commanders.

"This is the last crate?" An officer questioned as Ahsoka sat meditating on the floor, carefully lifting the heavy metal weapon crates off of the ground and into the gunship, eyes tightly closed in concentration. With the low sound of metal touching down on metal, the officer watched as Ahsoka successfully put the final crate in the gunship before opening her eyes with a smile, "Was the last crate, now there aren't any."

Standing up, she nodded to the officer with a smile, "I suppose we have more work to do?" she questioned, crossing her arms in her famous style. The brown haired man nodded, pulling out a data pad and looking at it to see if there was any more work for the day. After a few moments, he looked back at the Jedi with his blue eyes and shook his head. "Nope, all done for the day, the other squads will handle locking down equipment for the night. The hunting squads got plenty of fish and meat, so we can enjoy a good meal tonight."

"That's excellent, any word on Imperial presence in the system?" Ahsoka replied, always worried that this base would be found again.

"No, as far as we know none of the X-wing recons have found any imperial presence, there was a probe droid landing a few miles north but it crashed into a mountain before it could even activate, so I doubt that'll lead the Empire to us."

"Alright then, make sure to stay alert officer Zeloff, there's no guarantee the Empire won't double check Dantooine to see if we came back in the future. I doubt they'd be very happy."

"Will do."

Ahsoka then turned and started to walk away from the officer, allowing a slight cool breeze to come over her body, cooling her off from all the heat using the force for a full ten minutes caused her. The stress was sure to make her sore the next day, but work had to be done and it was too risky using old slightly damaged lifting cranes to put the crates on the gunship, and she was out to save casualties. If the empire attacked, they needed as many men as possible to make sure they could get off planet.

As she stepped inside the large open hanger made from stone that housed multiple X-wings and gunships, Ahsoka could only hope the day would never come that she'd have to face the empire. The clone wars was bad enough, but from what the Togurta had heard, this civil war was far worse…

Off in the distance away from the rebel base of Dantooine, a small metallic object would hurl down to the ground from the atmosphere into the muddy ground near a lake. Emerging from the small crater that formed was an Imperial Probe droid, activating its numerous exploration devices as the droid slowly hovered out of the landing sight and into the safety of the nearby trees. Technicians operating the droid from the Imperial Star Destroyer _Maxillus _turned to their commanding bridge officer –a dark haired man wearing a formal grey suit with black boots and gloves whom looked middle aged to report the successful landing.

"Commander Tarkin, the probe droid has successfully landed on Dantooine and is commencing searching functions, sir."

Tarkin, looking towards the imperial whom delivered the news, smiled faintly before replying "Good work, make sure not a crevice of that ruined village is left unchecked for those rebellion _roaches_."


End file.
